Child poverty

Fuel poverty can have severe and life-long effects on children, according to a new report from the Association for the Conservation of Energy. The authors point out that although it is widely recognised that fuel poverty has severe effects on older people, the position of families and children has been relatively neglected.

Governments in both developed and developing countries are not taking widely agreed-upon steps in critical areas known to make a difference to children's opportunities, according to a new report.

The report presents comparative data, never previously available, on child policies in 193 countries – nearly every country in the world. It reveals how millions of children across the globe face conditions that limit their opportunities to thrive and reach their full potential. It maps the answers to key poverty-related questions such as:

Children are the age group in Europe at the highest risk of poverty or social exclusion, according to a new statistical report from the European Commission. And the relative risk for children in the UK is greater than the average for EU countries as a whole.

The conclusions in the report are based on figures from EU-SILC (Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) for 2011, the latest year available.

Fears have been highlighted that children's nutrition is suffering as a consequence of the economic recession, following a new survey of professionals working with children. At the same time the government is reported to have commissioned research into the rapid growth of food banks, soup kitchens and school breakfast clubs.

The Children's Food Trust (formerly the School Food Trust) surveyed 253 professionals online between November 2012 and February 2013.

A universal payment of €50 per month per child aged under six could take 800,000 children out of poverty across Europe, according to a study commissioned by the European Commission into the potential effects of introducing a child basic income.

The researchers made use of EUROMOD, the tax-benefit microsimulation model for the EU, to look at the distributional implications (within and between countries) of an illustrative child basic income operated and funded at EU level.

EU member states are being urged to tackle child poverty and social exclusion through multi-dimensional approaches, in an important strategy statement issued by the European Commission. The statement accompanies a wider package of proposals on social investment in the EU.

Rates of child poverty vary widely between different local areas, according to a 'map' of poverty rates produced by the End Child Poverty campaign coalition.

The map shows child poverty rates by parliamentary constituency, local authority and ward. The data is for mid-2012, using a measure of child poverty as close as possible to that used by the government nationally.

EU member states are being urged to tackle child poverty and social exclusion through multi-dimensional approaches, in an important strategy statement issued by the European Commission. The statement accompanies a wider package of proposals on social investment in the EU.

The coalition needs to urgently review its approach to reducing child poverty, says a new report from the National Children's Bureau. The government should spend less time focusing on how child poverty is measured, it argues, and concentrate instead on practical lessons from other countries about what works best in tackling the problem.

£8 billion will be spent on reacting to the problems of 'troubled families' in England over the five years to 2015, rather than addressing them proactively, according to an analysis from the Department for Communities and Local Government. The analysis is used to justify the coalition's decision (in December 2011) to spend a further £448 million on its Troubles Families programme.

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PSE:UK is a major collaboration between the University of Bristol, Heriot-Watt University, The Open University, Queen's University Belfast, University of Glasgow and the University of York working with the National Centre for Social Research and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. ESRC Grant RES-060-25-0052.